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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Creating Momentum

I couldn’t get started yesterday. After I warmed up on the oboe, I played a few notes of my concerto. Then I tried an excerpt or two. An etude? Nothing seemed to take - I wasn’t having fun or finding things to work on or feeling the magic at all. I was scattered and uninterested.

So I thought I’d work with my computer a bit. I opened a text window to rough out the mission statement for my new chamber music series (curious yet?), and jotted down a few words. But it wasn’t flowing. I toyed with Wordpress to start a website for it. Didn’t really get anything going. I thought I’d explore fonts. Typed my name a jillion times and refonted it over and over. This was obviously a make-work project - simply me grasping at anything, ANYTHING to feel productive. Didn’t work.

I tried responding to emails. That was all right, but when I went to compose a new one - info for newly enrolling students for next year - I again hit a block.

All of this took place in about 45 minutes, to give you perspective on my crummy morning. I hopped from one project to another and couldn’t pick up any momentum. Eventually, I just decided that I had to create SOMETHING. I made a yummy summer salad. Lots of nice chopping and whisking and combining. Thirty minutes later I had my head on straight again - and a yummy summer salad, to boot. We ate, I took a nap, and hit the floor running for a good afternoon’s work.

Sometimes creativity requires a little jumpstart. Sometimes you just have to DO something real. Finishing a project and having a concrete result to point to - I DID this today - can get you moving and keep you moving. Something as mundane as mowing the lawn or preparing a salad can be exactly what the oboe needs!

2 comments:

Great points Jennet! I've found myself in the same situation MANY times. It's hard because you feel like you're abandoning the work you need to do. But a negative practice session is really something I try to avoid. The next time this happens to me, I'm going to put on an inspiring recording to listen to, and make a delicious salad!